This code is used to report EACH additional 30 minute block of time beyond the first hour of critical care on any given calendar date. This code is used ONLY in conjunction with the 99291 code. EACH additional thirty minutes beyond the first hour of critical care is reported using this code. For example, if you spend 90 minutes on critical care in one calendar date, the encounter would be reported by using the 99291 for the first hour, plus one 99292 code used to report the additional 30 minutes. Please be aware that the 99292 has a 15 minute threshold which must be crossed before each 30 minute increment can be billed. For example, if you provided 74 minutes of critical care on ONE calendar date, this encounter would be reported using ONLY the first hour 99291 code (because the 15 minute threshold for the additional 30 minute code was not crossed). On the other hand, if you spent a total of 75 minutes during that ONE calendar date on critical care, you would report both the 99291 (for the first 60 minutes) and the 99292 for the additional 15 minutes. one second on critical care, this encounter would be reported by using both codes.

Internists used the 99292 code a total of 87,446 times in 2003. I code fairly aggressively and I think I used this code about twice in 2003. In that year this code was reported 20,963 times by family practitioners, 5,324 times by nephrologists, 28,291 times by cardiologists and 47,801 times by pulmonologists.